Artists Gilbert and George have lived and worked together since 1968. Gilbert was born in Italy in 1943 and George was born in England in 1942. They met in London where, in the 1960s and 70s, it wasn’t easy being Gilbert & George: in effect, these two students were poor and gay, and their art was different from that produced at the time. They were also unusual: dressed eccentrically in suits and ties, like old men, they were the opposite of what you might expect of two young artists. At the time, their work was not widely known and didn’t sell well, so from an economic, social and artistic perspective, they were outsiders, isolated and excluded from the group. Their art has developed directly in response to this isolation. Did the art world and society not consider them? Therefore, they used their art as a means to say: look at us, we exist!

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Artists Gilbert and George have lived and worked together since 1968. Gilbert was born in Italy in 1943 and George was born in England in 1942. They met in London where, in the 1960s and 70s, it wasn’t easy being Gilbert & George: in effect, these two students were poor and gay, and their art was different from that produced at the time. They were also unusual: dressed eccentrically in suits and ties, like old men, they were the opposite of what you might expect of two young artists. At the time, their work was not widely known and didn’t sell well, so from an economic, social and artistic perspective, they were outsiders, isolated and excluded from the group. Their art has developed directly in response to this isolation. Did the art world and society not consider them? Therefore, they used their art as a means to say: look at us, we exist!